Blackwell Reference Online

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The image type now commonly referred to as Shiva Nataraja (“King of the Dance”) may be the most famous form in India's visual arts ( fig. 19-1 ). In survey texts of world art, in India's handicraft shops, even on travel brochures and concert programs, images of this Hindu god have come to denote India itself. And yet this is only one among many forms in which Indian artisans have over the centuries portrayed Shiva's dance. Why did this form, which was specific to the Tamil region in southeastern India and which was not formulated until the ninth or tenth century ce, achieve such prominence? How did this image type gain the power to signify so much? F igure 19-1 Shiva Nataraja, cast metal, Museum Rietberg, Zurich. Certainly the form itself of this sculptural type is visually compelling in the dramatic transverse line of the lifted leg, the radial spray of arms, legs, and locks of hair, the thrilling tension between dynamic action and balanced stillness. Another reason for its fame may be its association with the ambitious Chola dynasty that dominated large portions of southern India between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, and extended perhaps a proto-imperialist presence into Southeast Asia. A key reason for Nataraja's current importance was surely Ananda K. Coomaraswamy's 1912 essay, and the philosophical profundity Coomaraswamy attributed there to Nataraja. Coomaraswamy ... log in or subscribe to read full text